Warlock Battalion
The CMF Warlock Battalion is a group of Special Forces operatives who fight primarily using supernatural warfare, filling an almost identical role as the UNSC's Guardian supersoldiers. Every Warlock is highly skilled and experienced in combat due to their selection process, and using their powers they can turn the tide of battle. Similar to the SPARTAN-II's of the UNSC-Covenant War, merely having a Warlock present on the battlefield boosts the morale of allied forces, as they represent the pinnacle of CMF Infantry Forces and their potential. Selection and Training Becoming a Warlock is not as simple as signing up and being trained in the art of supernatural warfare; it is a grueling process that filters out the majority of soldiers who even qualify. Candidates are generally selected from a pool of accomplished special forces members, with the occasional infantryman, and are then notified of the option to "try out". After this, they personally meet with the 3 Commanders of the Battalion (Osiris, Toland, and Gil), who test their aptitude and the strength of their souls, and judge whether or not they are capable of being trained into Warlocks. After Candidates pass the initial screening, they are retrained with the equipment used by the battalion, and are slowly trained in the art of Soul Force. This process usually takes months for candidates to be able to perform any notable feats with their souls, starting with meditation and mental exercises and up until they are able to manifest their power consistently and safely. It is at this point when a Warlock-in-Training finds out their subclass, determined by which fundamental elements of nature their soul interacts with and can alter. From this point on, the warlocks train rigorously to adapt their powers to allow them to freely control the elements, ranging anywhere form months to even upwards of a year; instead of a cookie-cutter training regimen, the warlocks corresponding commander personally works with the trainee until they are deemed ready for combat once more, with the ability to manipulate and control their souls without any more thought that than something as simple as walking. These teachings mirror those of Gil, Osiris, and Toland themselves under the former CMF Commander in Chief, Leonard Churchill Mas7er, and is kept the same both out of respect and out of proven results in producing powerful warriors. Notable Operations Second Fall of Cineris: Warlocks prove their initial worth in combating supernatural threats, holding the least amount of losses of any infantry type during the tragedy. Exon-ELA Civil War: Commander Osiris supported ERA ground operations against the ELA, now known as the Andromeda Dominion (AD). First Invasion of Kolechia: Commander Gil Liones spearheads an assault to retrieve stolen PTS Data from the AD. Operation CERULEAN ACE II: Fireteam Diamond, composed of commanders Gil Lionas, Toland, and Osiris, board an AD Soyuz-class Battlecruiser to disrupt and disable its operations against the CMF Second Fleet. The Taken War: Widespread use of Warlock Forces, primarily combating the supernatural Taken threat on Cineris and her Colonies. Additional Warlock support during the Invasion of the Dreadnought, as well as escorting high value Special Forces to confront the Taken King. Sub-Classes & Abilities The abilities of the Warlocks generally falls into one of three characteristic groups, based on the affinity of their soul: Sunsinger: Sunsinger Warlocks have soul affinity types regarding control the heat spectrum, specifically the more common control of the high energy end. Skills widely known among Sunsingers include, but are not limited to: *Fire Manipulation: The ability to manifest Soul Fire, and manipulate it in their general surroundings. For a short period of time sunsingers can go even further and produce superheated plasma-like energy, at the cost of draining their stamina much more rapidly than their normal flame manipulation. *Heat Manipulation *Flame Teleport: Pioneered by Leonard Churchill Mas7er in his time mastering his own powers, the Flame Teleport is a short range relocation technique to quicky travel relatively short distances. The user disappears in a plume of flames, and reappears in a similar plume anywhere from several to multiple dozen meters away; however, the distance one can teleport depends on their mastery of their powers. Voidwalker: Voidwalker Warlocks have soul affinity types regarding the manipulation of Void energies (gravitational and dark energies with a touch of magnetic influence as well, not to be confused with the dimension of the same name). Most Voidwalkers master their abilities in ways which allow them to perform acts such as: *Gravitational Manipulation: The ability to control the gravitational field in the general vicinity of the user. Useful for performing in zero-g environments, and also makes the user effectively immune to negative gravitational effects. *Dark Matter / Energy Manipulation: The ability to manifest Soul Energy as a mysterious form of deep purple matter / energy with reality-altering characteristics. Typically used as a utility or like a "grenade" of sorts to disrupts the flow of battle, creating areas with heavily altered gravity and light. In the hands of highly skilled warlocks, it can even be used to create Void Fire, which manages to "burn" and disintegrate the target without actually using heat, making ti useful against thermal protection. *Blink: By drawing in their focus, Voidwalkers can perform a short range teleportation. Like the Flame and Arc teleportation techniques, its range depends on the focus and skill of the user, but generally does not exceed a few dozen meters even for the most skilled and powerful warlocks. Stormcaller: Stormcaller Warlocks possess the ability to manifest their soul's energy in the form of Arc energies (electricity related concepts such as lightning). Common traits and abilities of such Warlocks include: *Electricity Manipulation:The ability to manifest Soul Electricity, and to manipulate electricity in their general surroundings. The ability to freely manipulate electricity allows for fierce offensive strategies, especially against enemy electronics. Additionally, like the other subclasses, this provides a general immunity to electric shock and other phenomena related to their element of control. *Electromagnetic Field Manipulation: Stemming from the relationships between electricity and megnetism, highly skilled stormcallers can even control electric and magnetic fields directly, in addition to electricity itself. This results in more precise and creative usage of their element, as well as rendering most small-arms scale plasma weaponry useless as well; while sunsinger merely negate the heat damage of the plasma bolts, a highly skilled stormcaller can compromise the magnetic fields containing said bolts, forcing them to dissipate before contact. *Arc Teleport: Using the same fundamental principles of the Flame Teleport, stormcaller warlocks learned to move about the battlefield in a pinch. The only main difference is that, instead of disappearing and reappearing in a plume of flames moments later, stormcallers are surrounded by a gathering of arc-lightning, and travel visibly as a single, high-speed arcbolt to their destination almost instantaneously. Category:CMF Category:Special Forces Category:Church's Work Category:Church's Characters